Falkenstein Mates Biking

After nearly five years, Nico and me managed a good old evening bike tour together. Last time I reckon we had biked to Venice. Nothing as long today, as we started relatively late and the days are getting shorter. After getting ready and the heart-watch up and running I waited a while for Nico to show up. He took a bit longer this time, as his bike hadn't been used in a while and needed the tires inflated once again (and a few other things). The original plan had been to bike to the Alatsee (and maybe swim) but as the sun was already starting to go down and we hadn't even left yet we decided on the Falkenstein instead.

Of to Pfronten some how, as in the past years I have forgotten all the back tracks. Was noticeable, as we took a weird way through Pfronten. I knew that there was a way to get from down town Pfronten up to the Falkenstein past the swimming pool somewhere. I had biked it with the group at some point (yea, yea, was probably six years ago or something like that). Managed to get up via a staircase next to the swimming pool and then followed the road up to the old castle and hotel near to it. Took a while getting up, but it was at a nice pace and the both of us could have a bit of a chat.

Reached the top and got our warm things on nearly instantly. The sun had gone down and it was cooling down rapidly. After a picture and some food, back down in the dusk. Reached the bottom and with Nico's bike armed with a light we navigated through Pfronten to Rebichel and the fog covered fields back to Nesselwang, where a warm shower was waiting. Nico still had the steep hill up to Maria Rain to look forwards to, though.

Track at GPSies.

Five Year Alpspitze Interlude

So today I tackled a worrying aspect that has been bugging me for a while. In the last four years I haven't biked uphill for any prolonged time, so I'm a bit terrified that I can't really do any more “proper” mountain biking. So to see how things are I planned to ride up the Alpspitze. The day was perfect for it. Blue skies and a slight breeze now and then.

After having breakfast with Mum, Daniel and Annalena I went back home and got changed. On the bike and up along the stream that comes down past Maria Trost. As I'm still using the Polar Computer to measure my pulse I was a bit downtrodden to see it shoot straight up to zone four, but I didn't feel to different to what I remember how it felt like biking up the Alpspitze. So I just carried on and tried to keep the heart rate as low as I could. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I wasn't running out of steam immediately at the bottom, but I still stopped for a drink just as the forest finished. Back in the saddle and then came the section that, in the biker group, used to be refereed to as heart-brake hill. Still deserves that name, as I shot up to zone five (which you shouldn't really do outside marathons) but as the hill isn't to long I was only in that zone for 30 seconds. Felt it in my legs and the rest of the body, though. Then along the nice straight bit halfway up the mountain.

As the day was such a nice one and it was the weekend, I wasn't surprised to see a lot of other people out and about. Mostly walkers, but a few bikers, too. Wasn't overtaken by any, so my ego wasn't damaged. Met a few coming down and most of them had e-bikes. Only two others that whole day were on “old” bikes. 

After the forest came the more open area. Last time I had been there was in winter taking my best group of ski students down. Happy I can bike up it now, but there is still some snow on the side of the paths. Biking uphill was accompanied by the odd shriek in the distant, as the zip-line from the top is running at capacity (I think). Reached the Kappler Alm turn of which I wanted to continue down along, but decided that the short bit up to Sportheim Böck could still be managed. Reached it shortly after and had a small chat with some tourists who thought it was madness that I had biked up the Alpspitze (just the Alpspitze! Imagine if they'd seen what I biked a few years ago ^^).

Then the more fun part, going downhill. The Kappler Alm track is still as dodgy as ever, but no flat tires or flips this time. Then down, down, down past the Hündelskopfhütte and in to Kappel. The tree climbing spot was flooded with people (as was Sportheim Böck before) but the Kappler Alm seemed rather relaxed on people. In Kappel I decided I still didn't have enough and was ecstatic that the Alpspitze hadn't beat me and I could still do it, so I headed out to Pfronten Roffleuten. Turned off wrong in a field and slogged through half a meter of grass after which I checked if there were any ticks on my legs. None there so on past the Kögelweiher crossing and back past the deer farm to Nesselwang.

Really happy that I can still call myself a mountain biker and just have to get a bit of stamina back again.

Track at GPSies and some pictures at Google.

Cloudy Hängesteeg

Today saw a bit of a convoluted sort of plan. About one and a half weeks ago I started my new job for the summer (more or less a glorified lawnmower, but pay is good) and have been rather knackered after every day. I had told myself over and over again the last few weeks that I have to get back in to biking and looking at a few of the old blog entries, I was hyping up my motivation (and depression) about how much I had biked five years ago. So yesterday I agreed to bike to Brian for a cuppa with mum later in the day. Waking up in the morning the sky was overcast and I wasn't to sure if it would hold until the evening. And as biking up the Elleg usually isn't to much off a workout I decided to go biking in the morning and then in the afternoon to Brian's with mum.

So, got the bike and me ready and then it was off to the Hängesteeg. Haven't been there in years (duh!) and remember it being a rather nice bike with lots of different views (and I don't think I'll manage the Alpspitze yet). About a kilometre down the road I stopped and put on my warm jumper as the wind was proving rather chilly and it was only going to get colder in Wertachtal. Along the Wertach jumping over puddles and splashing through mud and towards the Bischhofstein. The actual path along the Wertach at the Stich turn-off had been “closed” (one, not official looking sign) to the public because of a landslide, but I carried on anyway. Further along I found out that the landslide had been cleared.

At the Bischhofstein I then turned up towards Wildberg and was in for the longest climb. Didn't turn out to bad as I still was fresh and zoomed up before biking through the hills around Wildberg to the Hängesteeg. Getting down to the Hängesteeg was interesting, though, as the metal ramps were extremely slippery. Managed with only a small slide here and there and carried on up to the main road towards Rückholz, getting cheered on by a family walking along the same track.

Once at the main road I followed a short detour to Rückholz that usually takes you on the Sieben Seen tour and after that through Hirschbühl around the back of the Rückholzer Steig and over the motorway. Back in to Nesselwang through Schneidbach and happy to be home as the last five kilometres had my legs and stamina slowly going down.

In the evening the weather still didn't look to much better and I had come down with a slight cough, so I asked mum if we could drive instead of biking.

Track at GPSies and some pictures at Google.

First Time Biking after Four Years

So after a Winter of ski instructing, spring has shown up again (sort of, snow is predicted for later tonight again). This means the bikes can come out again and this year I have another piece of technology I want to test out. It is by no means new, but I've never used one before. I'm talking about a heart rate monitor that you can wear whilst doing sport. Rather a lot of people around tend to use them and mum had one lying around she hasn't used in years. Not for lack of sport on her part though, it's just the watch is a technological difficult thing to use it would seem (took me a few hours to get it sorted out) and it does to much of which she doesn't need.

Anyway, bike out and ready. Long things on straight from the start. The warm weather from the sun over the past few days has passed and the condition has swung around to being overcast and three degrees. Originally I had wanted to bike around the Grüntensee, but a short run on an open flat section changed my plan to biking along the wind protected Wertachtal. Heart rate monitor working fine, not uncomfortable or anything and it is really interesting to see what your heart is doing. According to all the graphs and tests I'd done before, I'm a rather healthy individual, although I don't feel like it. Once up and out of the valley the temperature dropped due to the wind blowing occasional. In Stich I turned of to Maria Rain and planned to go back down in to Wertachtal, but that way is closed due to logging as I found out at the church. Carried on along the main road over open field with every part of me getting colder. Crossed the Wertachtal bridge with not to much traffic going on and returned home to get all the data out of the computer to see how I did.

Track at GPSies.

Gore Bay & Paua Hunting

In the last week I have been moved from Kaikoura to a small beach town south of most of the road sites. A place called Gore Bay, with it's main town being Cheviot. Well, “main” may be a bit of a far stretch. Cheviot probably has 300 people living it at most. The switch in location was due to the way to work taking ages. Cheviot and Kaikoura are about the same distance to the job, but not passing through all the roadworks means we save a lot of time. What sometimes took two and a half hours now can be done in a consistent half an hour. The new place is really good, too.
Anyway, in Gore Bay I now had entire free day this weekend, after spending yesterday shopping in Christchurch for groceries and watching a movie. Managing to pry myself out of the comfy bed in the morning and after some breakfast and exercise I set of on a walk to explore the surrounding area. There is a track leading up in to the limestone hills surrounding Gore Bay (forgot the name of the trail) and I decided to have a bit of an explore. The sign pointing out the track mentioned that the walk would take two hours, so I had all the food and water with me for a lunch at the top. A lot of the trail seems to be in dire need for repairs, as some of the pathways close to the stream running through look to be in threat of collapsing in to the stream bed. But they held me so they can probably hold nearly anybody. Hiking along the bottom area of the track I came to a section which took me through the stream, but it had fanned out and created a kind of swampy area overgrown by high grass. Initial thought was that this could be a risky area to traverse, but then I reconsidered my instincts from Australia that there would be no such things as snakes in there (snakes love those conditions, perfect for hunting amphibians). Climbing up I got to the top in approx. half an hour. 

At the top with the view overlooking Gore Bay and the hills towards the inland I meet two Kiwis who were in Gore Bay for a short weekend vacation. Had a bit of a chat to them, mainly about the work going on on the roads and rails to Kaikoura. Not much later back down, which was a lot faster than going up. All in all the two hour return trail took about 45 min. Not satisfied yet, I headed to the beach and along that. Seeing as the tide was out about three dozen people were on and around the beach, clambering over rocks and out in the shallows with wetsuits on. Pretty obvious what they were after, the New Zealand renown paua. Gore bay seems to have pretty large specimens of them, according to all the ones on display throughout the beach town. Shoes and socks of I decided to try my luck, too, but at the end of it all (after clambering over rocks and kelp) my search was rewarded with a moderate sized shell of a paua. No food inside it, though, so I'll have to try another day.

Once the tide started coming back in again I was back to the house for a bit of a read and writing the blog.

Length: 6.5km

Time: 1 hour 45 min.  

Kaikoura Peninsula Walk

Well, today’s plan was another walk. This time I didn't want to send my poor car through the gruelling track to the bottom of Mt. Fyffe. To much of that and it won't have any shock absorbers left to carry on driving.

So today I decided to do the Kaikoura Peninsula walk. Last time I was here I also did that, but today promised to be much nicer weather (again). Setting off, it was actually a bit to hot for my liking, as I started sweating straight away. But, well, summer isn't like winter. If it's to hot you just have to suck it up, as there comes a point were you can just not take any clothes of any more (especially in public).

The walk to the start of the Peninsula track took me through a bit of the town, past some historical sites and a roadside shop selling cooked crayfish. Might have to try that at some point, never had crayfish before. The beginning of the actual walk is where a decent amount of seals come to laze around on the rocks in the sun, so on good days there are a lot of other people there taking pictures of them. As I've already seen a fair share of seals I skipped that part and carried on straight to the walking track. 

Up on the hills you walk along a mowed grass track taking you to different points explaining different things about the history and environment. Down bellow I could hear seals calling out and I think most of them would have been the young ones from what I know and could catch from the sounds. There are some tracks down closer to the colonies, but I decide to carry on and after an hours walk ended up in the South Bay of Kaikoura. The town has also expanded in to here and today it was especially busy, due to a horse race being on. With my unpredictable allergic reactions to horses (seems to only happen in spring around said animal) I stayed clear of that and went back up the hills to get to the town centre and the accommodation I have there. Quick two hour walk with a lunch break in between, a lot of black birds hanging around and not to many people.

Distance: 10.5km

Time: 2 hours

Mount Fyffe, Kaikoura

Quite a bit has happened since the last blog update. So much for keeping things updated more regularly...

All throughout September we worked at the ski field, with not as many closed days as at the start of the season. Had some fun times on and of the field with most of the staff, be it skiing or hanging out.

Then came October, with the last week of the season being the holidays of New Zealand. Considering that the holidays were in full swing, the weather did not really cooperate. We had one really nice day on a Saturday and the rest of the week was a mess of cloud and rain, even a bit of snow at some points. The last day was one of the most interesting by far. Standard procedure every year at Porters is, that at the end of the last day all the staff help pack up the area. This means that all the fences, all the spring boxes of the Tow-bars and all the crash mats get tidied up. We finished all that at about six o'clock in the evening, after having closed down the lifts at about two PM. Mark and me had some of the best jobs, as we were on T2 and T3. The weather was absolutely horrific at the bottom and at the top it was blowing a snowstorm. So much in fact that the Tow-bars had to be closed to the public, so ski patrol could do avalanche work. Means Mark and me got a few free runs in on the safe stretches and it was really good snow. A nice finish for the end. Later whilst packing up the spring boxes at T3 one of the ski patrols released a small avalanche, which, had it carried on to far, might have gotten us whilst we were working.

The next day we had the end of season party. After the whole staff devoured and entire lamb on a spit we had a bit of a party at the Longframe (workers hut) up on the mountain.

A few days later the whole Benmore crew went for a last day in Christchurch. Thanks to Nicks organisation in Sheffield we ended up doing some climbing in a forest where they had set up routes through the trees. Doing that I noticed how unfit I have become. Either the ones in Pfronten are easier or I just haven't kept up my exercise (I reckon later). Concluding that we (after some heavy debating) went and had an all you can eat meal in one of the restaurants around the town, before heading out to Hanses parents place for a last few drinks. After the goodbyes, Mark and me returned to Benmore, and so ended a fun few months at Porters. 

A week later I got a call from Dean (my boss at a hay contracting job) if I was available (yes) and if I wanted to go work up near Kaikoura. The town had suffered a severe earthquake about a year ago, and the recovery works are still under way and will be so for a long time. As I am still saving up money to go sailing with Dad once he sets of, I agreed and later the next day saw me driving a tractor up to Kaikoura to help with transporting stuff in a trailer where trucks can't go. The first three weeks was pretty much just work and getting stuff sorted out (inductions, picking up my car from Sheffield, etc.) but today was the first day I actually managed to go out and do something.

Last time I had been to Kaikoura I'd done a walk up one of the mountains, called Mt. Fyffe. The weather was not the best that time and I was also battling a cold, but needed something to do.

So here I was again, this time felling healthy and a nice day out and about (also testing out a new calorie tracker). The drive there went across some gravel roads which I don't think my car enjoys to much and after having a fast change of clothes at the bottom in the car park I started walking up. Man, am I out of shape, but I still managed to get further than last time. I had lunch at a lookout point a fair way up and then continued further up for another 20 minutes to see the other side of the mountain. Going all the way up is slightly out of area of comfort right now, as the top turns in to rather alpine terrain. About three hours from the bottom there is a hut you can stay in and the top is about five hours from the bottom up. So after snapping a few pictures just after the lookout point I turned round and went back down. This is the part where I miss having a bike, but the gradient is rather step in the first half. Still, my legs noticed the downwards walk more than usual.

Once back in the car and heading for Kaikoura I met James on the way (a work colleague) and had a wee chat.